Walking 14.05 — seeingklybeck

14.05

Total distance: 585 Meters
Time: 17:25 to 18:30 | 1h5min
Streets walked: Kleinhüningerstrasse, Inselstrasse, Altrheinweg, Klybeckstrasse
Photographs: 68
Videos: 24
Objects gathered: 3

︎Map of Walk

︎Narrative

I began my walk at the corner of Klybeckstrasse and Kleinghuningerstrasse with the intention of wandering for one hour.
The first image situates me as facing the stately and organised building across the street. I stop to admire the yellow awning that echoes precisely the yellow crosswalk. The street is very quiet. I am alone and able to linger and take photos as I like.

Klybeckerstrasse 110 meters walk - 15 meters to cross the street once

246 Klybeckstrasse

I turn around and walk 2 meters.

17:32
Back entry to the restaurant. Here I stop and with the absence of people on the street allow myself to be a bit of a voyeur. There is planter boxes that extend in to the street, a cigarette machine that has been personalised with some artwork. The garbage bin pops green. There are many examples here of light and shadow. Unexpected items. Wrapped items. It is moving our from the building and flowing into the street.

I walk another 5 meters

17:33
Next door to the bins is an entry way that has an unexpected display of artefacts and dried flowers. It is hard to imagine its purpose as it is not a business and I am intrigued. I look closely, I admire.

17:34
To the right a car has parked on the sidewalk blocking the access - we can see the uncomfortable space that is left as well as chain that holds only a piece or metal. What is this piece of metal? Who would park in such a way? My shadow runs across the wall as I take the photos

17:35
Looking down there is a grill with a grid pattern. The light cuts across it and casts shadows from the items stuck in its openings. I stop to investigate the variety of textures and surfaces as well as the contrast with my shoes and that pleasant way the shadows are creating new surfaces.
The grill sits in a tiled entry hall that is a kaleidoscope of color. I can sense the craftsman who worked and the care that was taken.

17:36
Still at 246 Klybeckstrasse I notice the door, with its grid wire pattern and the handmade sign with foreign characters as well as the CCTV symbol. The glass provides a slight reflection of the light outside, my shadow as well as outlines of what is inside beyond the door.
The handle is equally impressive, weighty, industrial, practical and made for workers.
Walk 2 meters

17:36
Moving a few meters over and back to the restaurant there is a paper wrapped area on which I cast my shadow, a broom leaning and the light falling across the whole scene. It is all very interesting. I take another photo of everything together.

17:37
Looking back at the cigarette machine I realise that it is on a wall tiled in the most perfect tiny little tiles, each a slightly different color of taupe.
I admire the mini cigarette boxes that act like buttons.

17:38
I stop to look at the flower boxes. They are on the street yet somehow it feels I am snooping in someones garden. The owner of the bar on the corner is watching me now. I can feel his gaze. It makes me self conscious.
3 meters

248 Klybeckstrasse

17:39
I start to walk towards the river and come across the entry to the residential building. There is a hair salon here. The same tile is here yet everything is starting to look much more business like and professional. The street is reflected in the windows and I try to get a picture without me in it but it does not work.

17:39
243 Klybeckstrasse
I turn around as I can feel the sun on my back. I photograph the grey traditional building across the street. It is quite decorative. It is framed by cars. It is not possible to capture it without the vehicles that are parked in the street. The light glints off the building and leaves lines in the street.

15 meters
I cross the street to look closer. The windows have been covered with a strange purple graphic designs. The building reaches out into the street with lots of plantings and an open garden area.

50 meters
17:42
I walk a bit further almost to the end of the street The gardens continue and I see a small orange banner on the window of the second floor. I turn into the front garden entry and see some light glinting - there is a mirror propped up on the ground and am reflected in it. It is very unexpected. I stop to reflect on the plants pushing out in the cracks of the sidewalk. The mirror multiplies the images

17:43
I am at the corner, I can sense the bike activity picking up on Altrheinweg. People are coming home from work I photograph the graphic shapes on the street drain, the plants peeking out, the unusual green line paint. The texture of the asphalt and the cobblestones.
Turning toward the middle of the street there are handmade benches that have been placed in the center. I want to sit and watch the street for a while. The shadows are getting longer and longer.

17:44
The light glints off the large metal structures on the other side of the fence. My camera catches sun flashes and I feel warm. There is an old wooden dresser that has been dragged on to the street it sits as though it belongs there. The light is blinding and changes the whole scene

17:45
Road letters in green - leaves and texture

17:48
I sit in the middle on the bench. The bikers whiz by, leaving trails of conversations or music or just the hum of the tires. The bikes are casting long shadows
I stop and sit and watch the bikers whiz by in the sun. Everyone is in a hurry to get home. I filmed the activity for almost 5 minutes

18:00
I try one more time to capture the essence of the light as it bounces off the circular towers and I notice a white camper van. I think this is the kind of place that you can park your van with out getting in trouble. It is parked right on the line between the Neighborhood and the train tracks. The shadows are getting longer and the air is getting colder and colder.
Looking down Altrheinweg - the cars have taken over the street. Parked two by tow they have become a structure that blocks the street and narrows the path for the bikes.

18:02
The shadows stretch across the road touching to the other side. They are monolithic and are the most important thing on the street right now.

Corner - 110 meters
Turn on to Altrheinweg
Just after I turn I photograph a handicapped symbol painted on the street. The graphic form is bordered with textured cobblestone. The paint slightly transparent.

18:03
I find the different textures of the pavement to be interesting as well as the long shadow and so film myself walking from the corner of Altrheinweg and klybeckstrasse to Altrheinweg and Schlossgasse

18:05
then I film myself walking again from Schlossgasse and Altrheinweg to
Inselstrasse

18:07
I film my legs and long shadow…

18:08
film of my feet and pavement texture.

18:09
Find some leftover chalk elements on the ground. Inselstrasse and kleinhuningerstrasse

18:09
turn around and walk back up Inselstrasse towards the train tracks. Filming as I go 30 seconds in I come to chalk on the ground..

18:14
arrive at end of street and stop filming - turn around and film walking back on the other side of the street.

18:16
back at end of street again - cross and take a picture of the large wound in the sidewalk that has been patched with a dark black asphalt that does not match the surroundings. Boxes stacked in preparationrecycling rules.
Continue walking back up Inselstrasse this time filming what I am looking at facing forward. I stop occasionally to look close that things I am interested in. I cross path with people and bikes at the end.

18:19
I cross the street again and film one more time walking back to Kleinhuningerstrasse. Walking in this direction the shadow cast is long

18:20
Shortly I stop and take a photo of the stacked newspaper. And the recycled paper bags.
Then I continue walking and filming.
I stop a few meters up to film and photograph the entry to the building with the red door handle. I film the red door handle for 20 seconds

18:21
I photograph the red door handle. And then I photograph the mailboxes. Some of them are so stuffed the continues leak out the bottom.
The area to the other side of the mailboxes is thickly planted and colourful.

18:23
I walk a little further down to 44 Inselstrasse and come to another entry with mailbox and lavender paint with orange and purple flowers. A fake bird in the window and stickers on the metal panel. The contrast between the bright colors of the building and the flowers is striking. Then the main door explodes with color. Unexpected and highly unusual from the rest of the street. There is a gecko above the door.

The backside of the mailbox next door has an abstract painterly shape that has remained on it from perhaps and old sticker. It seems like it was intentional and should represent something but a closer look reveals that it was damage or residue from a sticker or something. The blue of the box somehow coordinates with the powder blue of the house paint.
Below the mailbox are some wild plantings.
The next mailbox is burnt red and silver - industrial looking with also some stickers. In general the stickers seem to all lean a bit left politically.

18:24
I film a bit to the left of the mailboxes described above. The ground is covered with dead plant material and there is moss and new plants peeking through the cobblestones.

18:25
I take a moment to capture the noisy birds in the entry garden to the second to last house on the street. And then the doorway with the birds chirping again in the background.

18:26
Finally I film the black mailboxes that face out on to the street,

18:27
I am at the corner now and take one last photo down the street looking back towards the Rhein. The cars become more obvious in this photo. Blocking the view of the street and reflecting the sky above them
I look across the street and photograph the building on the corner, it is statle and ornate but almost completely grey. Looking across the corner is the red and grey apartment building that takes up so much visual space in this area of the neighbourhood. The light is flat and so I am able to capture better the repetition and lines of the building. There are people on the balconies looking out. The construction markers on the street become more obvious.

18:29.
Standing at the bus stop the voice from the building above flow down on to the street. I film the open window they are coming from for 30 seconds/ I photograph the building.

︎Videos